You were just a Girl
by MarisolM
Summary: Tenzin reflects on the first time he met Pema, years and years ago. OneShot.


When I first met you, I remember, you were just a girl.

I had no idea what urged me to take that shortcut out of City Hall that day, since the last time I'd taken route into the busy markets was when I must've been a boy, myself. I suppose I needed that noise of the public to think straight about those recent days meeting with the Council.

Republic City was in an uproar - _that_ I remember, too.

The Council had just decided to vote the young up-and-coming political figure, Tarlokk into representing the Northern Water Tribe – a young man I had kept a close eye with his violent political schemes against the anti-bending revolution. His motives were unclear, and yet the Council had not retained enough proof to vote against that corrupted Senator to come into office.

_Besides_, they had said, _the benders of Republic City trust him._ _Shouldn't we give the City what it wants?_

I was furious. Lin knew it, the Council knew it, but according to the City's by-laws… there was nothing that we could do. We were going to have a young tyrant in our Council.

Lin had gone after me after the Council adjourned, noticing how I had stormed out of that grand meeting room wanting to scream. By the time she got to me, one of my palms was planted against the wall, my other one holding a migraine that had tolerated an entire afternoon's meeting of lies.

_I had no idea how my father could put up with this for so many years._

What's worse, I had the instinctive feeling the Council had chosen Tarlokk because I did not have the sociable, charismatic touch that was needed to empathize with others. _You're not your father_, the Council seemed to say to me, in their own way… _so here is a man who'll be a bridge to the people._

"Will you be alright?"

Lin's stern face met my eyes in the City Hall's corridors, and her expression understood what anger I was feeling at that moment. We always seemed to think alike, her and I, especially in these times of stress. Her radiant black hair had been transitioning into grey through her Security training, and I moved my hand away from my face to look at her properly.

"Don't worry," she said, "We'll find a way to get him."

All I could do was nod out the headache still coursing along my temples. As much as I wanted to say everything to my best friend right then… I couldn't. I needed some time to let these feelings slide.

"How about I buy you a drink, old man?" It was Lin's teasing reminder that we'd now both entered our thirties. "Just this once."

I sighed. "Lin, you know I don't drink."

"I figured we could both use one, after today." She smiled only because she had to.

It was only in these moments where I could see the childhood friend I'd fallen for, and I don't know what happened to her.

"I'll be fine," I massaged the side of my head, "I think I'll just go for a walk."

Lin nodded, respectfully tapping my shoulder. "Then I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you," and that was that.

Once upon a time, we were so in love, it was almost sickening. I remember my father teasing me about it, too, urging me to go talk to her before some other boy would claim her heart. When she smiled – _really _smiled – it made me want to believe that the Spirit World was exactly like that. I loved her. I could even imagine that at some point, my parents even discussed wedding invitations.

But of course, duty called. The Anti-Bending sentiments got out of hand… and that awkward, empty wall that had placed between Lin and me… it followed us _everywhere_… even after so many years just remaining friends. Professionals. Why, Lin? _Why couldn't we fight for us?_

It was this – combined with my anger about the Republic City's Council politics – that I had been thinking about while I headed across the market. I noticed the haggling in the town square… the crying baby carriages along the sidewalks… the non-stop SatoMobiles claiming the streets as they passed one by one…

…_and the girl that was walking dangerously slow across the street._

I blinked, my airbending robes already in motion as I realized the girl had failed to notice the speedy SatoMobiles approaching her – despite all the _honking_ they did. My element took hold of me and like a leaf in the wind, I passed through the wandering crowd to get to her.

The vehicles kept honking. Louder and louder they came, and the girl froze in the middle of the street.

All of this must've happened in milliseconds, because the next thing I knew, I had placed myself in front of the girl, sending a gargantuan airbending _WHOOOOSH! _with my arms against the SatoMobiles… yielding the first handful of vehicles in front of me to a complete, _honking_ mess of stop.

I stood there, out of breath, completely out of thought. In my thirty years, I had never been able to show that much power, and amongst the ruckus of noise from the vehicles and the people cursing at me…all I could do was look over at this foolish girl.

"_Are you alright?_"

My voice was harsh, and I meant it. I had even planned to say something else along the lines of 'are you trying to get yourself killed!'… but my mind was suddenly in a different place, then.

It looked at you.

You were a girl… perhaps no older than fifteen… brown hair hanging over your eyes, Earth Kingdom clothes I could spot anywhere... a small travel bag over your shoulder, and your hands clutching a handful of flowers like your life depended on them.

You were so much in shock, you hadn't even looked me in the eye.

And the vehicles kept honking.

"Alright. _Alright!"_ I held a hand up to them and carefully escorted you off of the street, taking hold of your bag and surprised at how heavy and limp you were at that moment.

I sat you onto a park bench to see if the shock in your face had gone away, but you stayed looking on at the ongoing traffic, as if you were in a trance. Your hands still clutched that same bouquet of flowers.

"Hey," I attempted in my normal, calmer voice, standing in front of you. "It's okay. You're safe now."

By the deep breaths you took and the small nodding of the head, I knew you could at least hear me.

I let myself kneel down on front of you, to get a better look at your face.

"Are you meeting anyone in the marketplace?"

It was then – _right then _– when I first saw your eyes, as you turned your head to look at me.

They were a light, chocolate brown… the eyes of a non-bender… eyes so intense that they looked like they had been shedding tears for the better part of that Saturday afternoon.

I didn't want to leave you alone. I couldn't. Not after what had just occurred in the street, what I had just seen through those brown eyes, I couldn't put myself to letting you go until I knew for certain that you would be okay.

So I sat down next to you.

"What is your name?"

You didn't speak, but I kept to it in my usual airbender's patience while I studied the flowers still clutched in front of your frame.

Then you whispered something.

I looked at you again. "Sorry?"

"…_Pema…"_ your voice was soft and broken, while your eyes still focused on the street. "My name is Pema."

It made me feel better, knowing your name, and I tried to meet your eyes.

"Well, Pema, it's… nice to meet you." I must've sounded like an idiot, but you nodded in reply. I then remembered the travel bag. "Do you… do you have to be somewhere?"

And then, you came alive again. Your face scrunched up like one of my mother's sea-prunes… and I realized you were about to cry. I could hear the soft hiccups under your breath, the hands slowly loosening their grip on the flowers… and I didn't know what to do except speak some more.

I never _was _that good with handling kids.

"Hey, hey… don't cry… I was just asking a question…"

I cautiously took hold of your hands to calm you down, but your body just caved into mine on that park bench, and you began to cry significantly against the fabric of my shoulder garb. I didn't know what it was that made you feel safe with me, but I stayed there, letting you – a teenaged girl - make a mess out of my airbending master uniform.

It didn't take long, after that, for you to finally wipe your cheeks… and you told me your story.

_How you had met this wonderful boy in Ba Sing Se… fallen head-over-heels for him in secondary school just before he was about to leave for university at Republic City on the other side of the continent. How you had both promised to stay together all this year, in spite of the long distance, and wrote to each other every day. How he kept wishing you were here, with him, sharing this wonderful Republic City experience together. And you… how you'd saved up your babysitting money all this year to take a twenty-hour train trip and visit him the week of his birthday… as a surprise… only to discover that he was experiencing Republic City with someone else. Moved in with her, in fact. A university girl. A bender._

And here you were, now… and girl, heartbroken, stuck in a city she didn't know, without a place to stay for an entire week.

Much like I felt with handling kids, I didn't see myself as a great counselor… but I did my best with you.

"Hey, chin up," I said foolishly, forgetting how life was like at the age of fifteen. "Things will get better."

It made you raise a brow at me, and I swear, I think I heard you laugh. In a way, I almost wanted to laugh at myself at that point. Here I was, the Avatar's son… trying his best to fight oppression in the world's Capital and live up to the expectations of _being _the Avatar's Son… now having to deal with a shy teenaged girl cry over a cheating boyfriend.

"It's true!" I defended myself meekly, holding my arms over my chest. "Believe it or not, I was your age, too, once."

That was when I heard you laugh. Really laugh. It made me feel like I had finally done something right.

You wiped the last bit of tears off of your eyes, "Were you ever in love like that?"

"Oh yes," I say this without second-guessing myself. "I still am."

I don't realize that my eyes are cast downward, until you say something.

"What's wrong?" You ask, and it's the first time I can hear your crisp, innocent voice. "Is it not working out?"

"Well," I bring myself to look at you again, feeling comfort in those light brown eyes. "It's hard to explain, Pema… but as you get older, relationships get more… _complicated_."

You kept looking at me, intrigued, so I explained further.

"Feelings start to get in the way of more important things, and you do your best to let them survive while not making them the center of your life. You start to discover your own personal wants, and sometimes, they might not match what the _other_ person might want. So you grow apart."

As I said that, I started thinking about Lin, how her primary goal was to avenge her mother's unfair death, and how she didn't care if she would have to shed blood in order to get to that place. Had I not been of the peaceful nature, I could've stomached that ambition of hers, easily. But I couldn't. I _couldn't._

_God, I remember that night when I couldn't stop crying like a child about it, to my father. _ _I was in love with a girl I could never see eye-to-eye with._

"Maybe she'll come around, and change for you," that innocent teenaged voice brought me back to my senses. "It's always possible."

I laugh. "Oh, I wouldn't count on it. She's always been pretty… _stubborn._"

"Or who knows?" it's then that I begin to notice how your thoughts race a mile a minute. "Maybe there's someone else who's destined to be with you. I'd like to believe in fate."

And I admit, you are adorable to listen to. "Maybe."

I don't know if it was you, or your story, or the fact that it was something out of the ordinary that occurred to me that afternoon… but it gave me a rather intriguing perspective, helping an ordinary girl like you. I felt like I had - for a moment - shed the weight off of my Avatar's Son responsibilities and forgotten about the inner workings of the Peace Council, all because of a girl with flowers who needed someone to talk to_._ You had cleared my mind out of a long-brewing headache… and all I wanted was to keep talking to you.

But then, you wanted to leave.

"Thank you, um, Sir. I think I'm feeling better." You took a breath, handing me the flowers so you could flex your fingers a new day. "That boy was a stupid jerk."

"Yes…" I laughed again, getting a kick out of this young girl's mind. "Yes, he was."

"I won't make myself act that stupid ever again."

"Good, and please steer clear from the traffic," I added morally, but then asked a serious question. "Where do you plan to go from here?"

"I was thinking of staying in one of those inns in the Suzhou district, the ones I read about on the train." You got up from the bench and looked at me in a keen, bold way. "Live dangerously, right?"

I nodded, "I would recommend Jinora's Bed & Breakfast. Best four-flavored soup outside of the South Pole."

"Thanks," you smiled at me.

As you reached down to get your travel bag, I could hear the noises of the outside city come back into existence. The world was becoming chaotic again, only this time there was fresh tears and snot on my airbending garb.

I looked over at you, and you waved a goodbye hand over to me, smiling that wondrous, innocent smile one last time before heading off into the southern Suzhou district.

It wasn't until you were a good distance away that I realized… I had never told you _my_ name, but I let that worry pass me by.

You seemed less of a frightened girl by the end, and part of me wondered if our paths would ever cross again, or _worse, _if I had made you believe that love was something that could come easily.

It was then, before the activity and noise of Republic City overwhelmed me once again, that I closed my eyes and began to meditate before the Spirits themselves… asking that this young man you would eventually fall in love with would be a _good_ one. A man who wouldn't leave you disappointed.

Deep down… I couldn't help but feel that _that_ was exactly what I was fighting for.

**A/N – Not my best work, but I had to try it. Guys, I'm torn between the adorable relationship of Tenzin and Pema, and the mysterious unworkable thing Tenzin and Lin had a long time ago. I got this story idea after discovering the massive age difference between Tenzin (50) and Pema (35), according to . It made me imagine Tenzin first seeing Pema as a kid – not in a **_**dirty**_** way, mind you – as someone who still needed to understand the big picture of life. It would make sense that Pema would grow up, realizing she's loved Tenzin all this time and try to win him over Lin.**


End file.
